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African-American students share their campus experience at CU diversity summit

By Carah Wertheimer

For the Camera

Posted:
02/18/2016 09:28:08 PM MST

Updated:
02/19/2016 06:10:06 AM MST

Gil Asakawa has worked at the University of Colorado at Boulder for five years but still feels more comfortable at Denver's Auraria campus.

"It's really a matter of seeing more people like me, and the general atmosphere of welcome," Asakawa said.

Asakawa, who is Asian-American, said his feelings are not unusual. "Young Asian-Americans in Denver don't want to come to CU-Boulder."

He also said that African-Americans he knows who attended CU decades ago think nothing has changed.

Asakawa spoke openly from the back of a small Kittredge conference room during "My CU-Boulder Experiences: A Snapshot from African American Students." Taking advantage of the momentary safety, he quickly joked about repercussions for his candor. The session was one of 22 offered at Thursday's "Going Beyond II: Deepening the Dialogue," CU's 2016 Spring Diversity and Inclusion Summit.

Staff, faculty, students, alumni and others gathered to better understand the CU black experience. Co-facilitators Randy McCrillis, director of the Cultural Unity and Engagement Center (CUE) and Tawanda Owens, CUE associate director of training and programming, shared the results of the 2014 undergraduate campus social climate survey. Information was gathered on classroom, residence hall and general campus experiences. Eighteen percent of undergraduates, or 4,445 students, responded, with more women responding than men.

McCrillis clicked through a stream of boldly colored visual data slides depicting the numbers behind the conclusions. The survey identified a sense of "overall belonging" as the most critical factor for African-American undergraduate success. Overall belonging is associated with greater overall satisfaction, higher grade point average and increased retention rates, he said.

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Freshman and sophomore years are critical for this to take root. Residence halls, said McCrillis, have an insulating effect, creating a sense of belonging that endures through the senior year. Mentoring is the second highest contributor to a sense of overall belonging.

At the other end of the spectrum, said McCrillis, "social identity exclusion" undermines overall belonging. Negative classroom experiences, peer interactions and instructor comments are the prime contributors to social identity exclusion, in that order.

Owens shared the qualitative results from her work with three focus groups. The 20 combined participating students were asked to speak to the survey data. Six core themes emerged, such as "unwritten rules," "isolation/onlyness" and the "illusion of inclusion." The students described a pervading sense of otherness and alienation from those around them, as well as a self-alienation that accompanies their efforts to fit in.

Others commented on inauthentic marketing materials designed to convey a sense of black community at CU that does not exist. Some went further, saying they felt objectified by the university's inclusivity project, i.e. feeling valued for bringing a diversity of skin color instead of for their basic humanity.

Owens read comments that depict a climate at CU which seems to undermine the cultivation of black community and kinship. One student described the impulse to connect and reach over to a fellow student, only to have that impulse canceled out by fear of "acting black." These unnamed describe an exposed environment with limited privacy, safety and authenticity.

Owens said that these kinds of issues are not eliminated by simple demographics. McCrillis agreed, saying that even at Title IV schools that are majority students of color, these issues persist.

A number of attendees, however, expressed concerns that the Boulder campus is especially, and persistently, unwelcoming, often sharing anecdotes from their own lives or of those they know.

An admissions representative said that because out-of-state tuition is so high they primarily recruit in affluent, white areas, while Colorado itself is also very white. Others commented that the city of Boulder has had these kinds of issues for years, so how different can the university be?

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